The Return Of My Bloody Valentine

Really? Aside from "In another way" it sounds straight forward to me.

To me as well, but I only listened once or twice to the Youtubes. I think I'd find it more interesting if I noticed unusual harmonic progressions. Where are you hearing these?

nothing is = techno?

nothing is = industrial skiffle

it's the midpoint between Lonnie Donegan and the Young Gods

there's one track on this that totally steals the guitar sound from Can's 'I Want More' amirite?

i think i mean the song 'new you'

it's kind of bo diddley in space

"Is This and Yes" is a pretty weird progression. "In Another Way" has kind of a weird progression. At the very least those bagpipe guitars are some abrasive and non-straightforward stuff. I don't know, maybe it's just all the arrangements that gave me that impression. Just feels alot more chaotic than "Loveless" to me.

Bo Diddley in space yeah. Last night on headphones i was getting a "2001: Space Odyssey" done by Noise Disney.

Like, "New You" is cool, it's definitely got a Stereolab vibe for a bit. Maybe it's not that adventurous of a song but it's just great to hear this band again. Check out how the guitar tremelo is perfectly lined up with the drums. Is there only one guitar there? I love the looping of her vocals at the end, especially that little bit at the end of the phrase where she sings "do do do" a little slower and it almost cuts off and then the loop just starts back up again. SO GREAT!

"Nothing Is" is fucking awesome. This is what i mean by experimental. They could have done with a more straight-ahead krautrock beat rather than this bizarre two-step which is kind of just whipping around the rhythm. Feel like I heard there was gonna be this cool noise band playing a house show and I show up and the lights are all off and everyone is standing around getting wasted in the dark watching as Kevin turns on a strobe light and maybe a noise TV and then starts punching up this stuff on a sampler.

I feel like the craft of making this record really shows throughout. It's as much about making the record as the record itself.

AV Club gives it an 'A' http://www.avclub.com/articles/my-bloody-valentine-mbv,91978/?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=avclub_rss_daily

'A-'

About the chord progressions: I hear a lot of sus4 (and possibly 7sus4) type-chords, specifically New You, but also in a lot of the other songs.

On another note: loving this record from start to finish.

DJ at Bush Tetras show last night was playing this in between bands. Sounded fantastic loud.

"If anything, it takes the pulped angel corpse that is Loveless and feeds it back into the machine for one more spin around the macrocosm."

good album

Industrial skiffle otm, and I tried to think of something to say about the harmonic choices that wouldn't turn into "The Driest Post On ILM" but I couldn't so nm

I don't usually expect much from the AV club music crits, but that is a pretty decent review.

xps

beginning my first listen now

excited!

I was pretty disappointed in some of the production choices at first but it's grown on me. I'd still like to hear more rhythm section and a little less control in places. If "In Another Way" was a hair more chaotic it might be one of my songs of the year.
One thing I've noticed (and I think this was mentioned upthread - It's not a recording for headphones. It needs actual physical space for context. I have expensive in-ears I invested in (so it's not a frequency range thing) which were how I chose to listen to the record for most of yesterday, Only when I played it on speakers a few times did I really start to feel an affinity for it.

i dunno - I've been listening to it on a big, bulky pair of Sennheiser NC cans & it sounds pretty fucking great!

It could be personal taste. It sounds overly claustrophobic in headphones to me. All close mic'd / DI'd. There's not much air in the recording.

Yeah, i was sitting there with the headphone on and it sounded great. Then every so often i would be "Aw, he should have mixed the drums louder here" and then i realized this dude probably mixed this a hundred different ways and this end result is _the way it is supposed to sound_. The drums are supposed to slip into the distance. Stuff is supposed to blend together.

Maybe if "Loveless" came out now there would be complaints "WTF this guy doesn't know how to mix, how come i can't hear what they're singing?"

haha, pretty sure the reaction back in 1991 was similar

"the tape is warped!"

I like to imagine there are a few songs on here where there were 30+ tracks of guitar and this year he just decided to wipe them all and do the solo with a single noise guitar sound that has been perfected over 20 years.

this is wonderful so far

One thing I've noticed (and I think this was mentioned upthread - It's not a recording for headphones. It needs actual physical space for context

what? it sounds great on headphones!

I don't think sounding good on speakers means an album is not a recording for headphones

Yup, I've listened to this solely on headphones and I've no complaints at all.

last three tracks specifically benefit from headphones imo

It's not a recording for headphones. It needs actual physical space for context

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/02/04/repetition-is-a-form-of-change-my-bloody-valentine-loveless-and-what-to-make-of-mbv-after-less-than-48-hours/

I'm waiting with baited breath to play the CD through my proper speakers.

a little less control in places

yeah, super uptight for an album of noise-bliss

last three tracks specifically benefit from headphones imo

― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Monday, February 4, 2013 8:03 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Absolutely. I can't imagine the last two sounding anywhere near as exciting through speakers as they do through headphones.

It sounds okay on big speakers but I wasn't really in a position to play it loudly enough. I suspect I'll get a lot more out of it on headphones.

if you your speakers properly placed, on stands, and sort of pointed in a V pattern towards the chair you're sitting it, you really do get a lot of those stereo effects you associate with headphones on speakers

i've only listened on headphones, it sounds great

this band is so weird to find a volume for, they have this odd effect of being quiet and super loud at the same time that i can't quite put in words

yeah i don't generally listen to music superloud on headphones but this morning i on my first listen i kept turning it up more and more

The first couple of times I played the album, it was on computer speakers, played at a low-to-moderate volume. A lot of it just seemed like ambient noise. Not an entirely bad thing, but headphones opened it up a lot for me.

Last night as I was listening loudly on headphones i was wondering maybe i should just put it on my speakers and turn it down really low.

i'm really fucking enjoying this...maybe even more than some because i like MBV but i don't have a ton invested in them other than, like they were a band that i heard in college and liked, like a lot of bands i thought were good and unique...

honest to god there's times i almost want to challops and say this is their best album but probably just because it's new

that will probably fade but overall this sounds like MBV and is good and i don't know how anyone could have possibly expected anything more

Yeah, this is as good as you could expect from any band after 22 years, especially a formerly gamechanging one.

I'm still wishing the phased/flanged drum loop right at the end of 'Wonder 2' went on for a bit longer!

i'm trying to ignore the 22 year thing when i listen to this, and just treat it as a third album by a band i like. the way it comes across as more loose, more fun than loveless really shines for me through that lens.

It definitely sounds like a helicopter taking off at the end. The only thing bad about this album is that it's too short.